How do Trump supporters define American greatness?

So, here’s my question for the MAGA crowd: When was America last great, and what was great about it? Also, when did it quit being great, and why?

To a skeptic, it often looks as if restoring the social and political arrangements of, say, Alabama in the 1950s is the movement’s goal. To be fair, it’s probably the Mayberry of “The Andy Griffith Show” that folks have in mind.

For most people, those halcyon days ended at about age 12, around the time they started following the news. In childhood, life seemed simple; violence and disorder were unknown. I can never hear The Judds’ “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout the Good Old Days)” on the radio without thinking of Alabama’s hillbilly genius Hank Williams. The song evokes a bygone era of innocence. Meanwhile, Williams’ heartbroke songs about drinkin’, sinnin’ and runnin’ around evoked the world as it was. Grandpa knew, but the children of Mayberry had no idea. Too many still don’t. Hence MAGA, a fantasy.

That’s a roundabout way of saying that regardless of which party prevails in the November elections, it would be foolhardy to expect dramatic change of the kind MAGA enthusiasts think they want. The deck remains stacked against them.

First, it’s not yet clear that former President Donald Trump is going to get away with what he did. Should the hearings by the House committee on Jan. 6 prove even halfway as shocking as predicted, all of Fox News’ horses and all of its men won’t be able to save him. Also, the former president may yet face criminal indictment — if not by the Justice Department then by a Georgia prosecutor investigating his attempts to strong-arm the state’s electoral process.

A lot can happen between now and Election Day to upset Republicans’ expectations. Should the Supreme Court, as expected, overturn Roe v. Wade, in effect rendering women of childbearing age vassals and vessels of the state, voters could turn strongly against them. Many Democratic strategists favor making the 2022 election a referendum on abortion rights, an issue strong enough to overcome voter frustration with inflation and gasoline prices.

Not that the Republicans have put forward serious plans for dealing with economic woes. Given the customary level of voter superstition that holds the sitting president and his party responsible for things over which they have almost no control — inflation and high energy costs are rampant worldwide — they may not think they need to.

But no matter what happens in November, the real impediments to making MAGA daydreams come true are the Senate filibuster — the very thing that has stymied the Biden administration — and, equally decisive, the presidential veto.

“No one at the White House will say this out loud, certainly,” Matt Bai writes in The Washington Post, “but the fact is that losing control of the House (and possibly the Senate) in November would instantly make the presidency a more manageable job.”

The last two Democratic presidents who lost control of Congress in midterm elections were Bill Clinton in 1994 and Barack Obama in 2010. Clinton issued 17 vetoes over the next two years, faced down a Republican-led government shutdown and ended up being reelected easily. Obama fought off Republican attempts to repeal his signature Affordable Care Act and won easy reelection. Give these MAGA cranks “a couple of years to show us what kind of government they have in mind,” Bai thinks, “and (President Joe) Biden will look like Abraham Lincoln by comparison.”

Biden probably won’t run for reelection, and shouldn’t. Putting Trumpism on life support is a sufficient accomplishment. Also, it’s long past time for generational change at the top of the Democratic Party.